Banana Plantation Plastic Bag Waste Management (Circular Economy Mexico)

Grand Challenges

Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems

Territories

Agriculture, Rural

Country

Mexico

Client

European Commission

Dates

February, 2025—
February, 2025
6 Months

WE&B Expertise

Ecological Business Innovation

Main Framework(s)

Circular Economy

Value of the Contract

4.900 Û(5.635 USD$)

Value of Services

5.635 $USD

Origin of Funding

EU

Project Activities

Business Models

Frameworks that outline how a business creates, delivers, and captures value, including revenue generation and cost structures that are aligned to environmental best practices.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

A systematic approach to evaluating the financial, social, and environmental costs and benefits of a project or policy.

Market Analysis

Research and evaluation of industry trends, demand, competition, and opportunities to support business or policy decision-making.

Technology Mapping

The identification and analysis of existing and emerging technologies to assess their applicability and potential impact in a given sector (i.e. water).

Objective & Description

The overall objective of the Short Term Mission was to support the Mexican company ReciSoc in identifying technological alternatives, market opportunities and stakeholders for plastic bag valorisation in Mexico. A polyethylene bag is used to cover the banana fruit during its growth season for protection from the elements as well as animals and pests. 45 kg of polyethylene bags per hectare are generated annually Ð considering two growing seasons – the bags are used just once. In Chiapas, there are 24 395 hectares that are dedicated to banana farming. RECISOC is recycling 7-10 % of the total plastic waste generated on banana farm lands. From this plastic waste, RECISOC is producing raw material for manufacture of plastic piping and plastic pallets. However, given the limitations of the current available technology, only 20% of the pellet material produced by RECISOC is used as raw material in other industries. This is because in the current process RECISOC is unable to wash the polyethylene bag, but manually selects the bags and processes them without doing a previous wash. This inevitably leads to contamination in the densities and bale products, which does not allow it to be used in more demanding applications than in pipes and pallets. The current process is slow, expensive and does not allow a high quality product to be obtained. Therefore ReciSoc needed to gain a market insight and understanding of the alterative technologies and the stakeholders in the market.

Services provided by WE&B

WE&B was contracted to assist the Mexican company in the following activities:
¥ To analyse the Best Available Technologies for plastic bag recycling in Chiapas
¥ To undertake a market analysis for the final use of the recycled plastic bags
¥ Stakeholder (final client) mapping and engagement
¥ Final report write up providing the insights to the market opportunities for ResiSoc

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